The present invention relates to a method of producing silazane polymers with silicon functional groups attached to the nitrogen. The method comprises treating a silazane polymer containing an N-H bond with an alkyllithium to produce the lithium salt of the silazane polymer and then reacting this lithium salt of the silazane polymer with a chlorosilane. The invention also relates to novel silazane polymers produced by the above process as well as the use of these polymers to form ceramic materials.
It is known in the art that an alkyllithium can be used to replace the hydrogen atoms of various compounds (including compounds containing N-H bonds) with lithium atoms and that these lithium functional compounds may then be reacted so as to add functional groups onto the compound.
What has not been described, however, is the use of an alkyllithium to form functional silazane polymers. This was particularly unexpected since it was not known whether the functionalization would destroy the polymer during the process.